This morning some friends of mine were discussing a flight one of them was going to take soon, and the subject of reclining the seat came up. Both of them seemed to feel that reclining the seat was absolutely the height of rudeness, intruding on the person behind you.
I always recline my seat - it’s more comfortable, and hey, the guy behind me is free to recline too, right? But admittedly I have had occasions where I have reclined and the person behind me has pushed back, or made some noises that indicated they were unhappy. In those circumstances I have just ignored them and assume that they have some kind of personal issue.
Personally, I recline but typically not all the way. The amount I decline depends on the height of the person behind me. If they are tall, then I only recline a smidge. If it’s a kid, then I go all the way back.
I’m a big guy, so I’m cramped as it is, and if someone in front of me reclines their seat, I now have less room, plus I can’t comfortably use the tray table. The way the seats work, me reclining my seat doesn’t help all that much.
If the flight we are on is around say 2 hours or less, why do you need to recline the seat?
Flights longer than that though, especially long haul flights, where you can reasonably expect people are going to have a nap or a sleep or something - fair game, recline away.
As a frequent traveler, I definitely prefer it when the passenger in front of me doesn’t recline. On some airlines it doesn’t matter, but I remember flying Continental where a full recline put the back of the chair about nine inches away from my face, and since I was in a row just forward of the exit I could not recline to compensate. On most flights, if I have a laptop computer out on the tray and the person in front reclines it will push the computer into my lap.
The amount of benefit from reclining is largely illusionary; you get about 5-8 degrees of reclining, not enough to actually remove a significant amount of weight from the lower back, but enough to intrude into the space of the person behind you. Unless you are flying business/first class, I’d generally consider it somewhat rude to recline unless you are so tall that you are just bunched up otherwise. If the person behind you objects I’d definitely regard it as inconsiderate to recline. But then, commerical air travel is a rude arrangement these days regardless.
Heck, my face would thank you. I typically never recline my seat for my own reasons, and having the one in front all the way back, inches from my face, is definitely uncomfortable. Especially if it’s for a period of hours. I was on a nine-hour flight once, and the guy in front reclined all the way once we took off, and stayed that way until just before we landed. I was by the window and I felt trapped. I reclined my own seat, and was terribly uncomfortable. I put it back up and felt claustrophobic. No other seats were available, and I didn’t want to provoke anything, so I sucked it up and dealt with it. But I hated every minute of it.
I agree that it’s rude. A degree or two of recline is one thing, but if you intend to go all the way back, at least have the courtesy to ask first.
I think reclining a little bit is okay, but not fully back. It is always rude to recline during meal service as the tray of the person behind you is attached to your seatback.
Well, colour me surprised by the responses so far. I have always thought of my seat as my space, so I recline it if I see fit. I know some people say that it is not any more comfortable to recline, but I am definitely more comfy - my lower back really starts to hurt in that upright position after a while. The thing is that I’m not some crazy who wants to make other people miserable, but I also balk at giving up my comfort for the sake of someone elses, all other things being equal.
As for asking first, I have flown a lot and no one has ever, ever asked me if I am okay with them reclining in front of me.
ETA: I totally agree with madmonk28 - no reclining during mealtime - that seems reasonable.
Reclining all the way - in coach at least - renders the tray table basically unusable for the sap behind you. But it’s not your fault. It’s a bad design based on how many sardines can be fit in a can.
Well, in my case, the personal issue is long legs. In some airplane configurations, my knees brush the back of your seat when it’s in the upright position. When you’re reclined, you’re leaning on my legs.
I’m not pushing back out of spite, bone is just kind of rigid that way.
Reclining a little but not all the way seems like a fair compromise. I fly constantly, and never recline my seat at all - I don’t think it actually helps with comfort, and the lower back problem is better dealt with by putting a pillow in the small of your back (a wadded up sweater does just fine).
Whenever someone reclines all the way, I find that the flight attendants almost always ask them to move their seats forward a bit when mealtimes come. I appreciate that.
Although I find it a bit rude when the person in front of me reclines all the way and I wish they wouldn’t do it, I try not to get too steamed up about it. If I were tall, though, I’d consider asking them to recline a little bit less.
I see it as rude. The reclining person’s comfort from reclining his chair a few degrees back is disproportionately small to the loss of comfort, space and mobility of the person sitting behind him. As a result, I never recline. However, if the person in front of me reclines, I would never think of asking him not to. Pointing out his rudeness in this situation would be ruder than his reclining.
I should point out that if someone had spoken to me and asked me not to recline, I would at least consider it, at least on a shorter flight. The pushers didn’t say anything, so I ignored them - they could easily have asked politely if they had wanted to. This has only happened a couple times, but I’m pretty sure they were deliberately pushing - it wasn’t consistent pressure, but intermittent. If it was just legs in the way, it would be different.
The problem is obviously the overall poor design of airplanes - none of us are really comfortable - but I always thought that since the seat is designed to recline, I was free to recline away.
Just out of curiosity, **Meyer6 ** (and not meant to be snarky), but how do you feel if the person in front of you reclines? I’m tall and it annoys me, but it could be a height thing.
No snark taken - it’s a fain question - I’m not especially tall (but not tiny), so that could be a factor. If the person in front of me reclines, sure it’s annoying and I’m left with little legroom, but I just consider it part of the parcel of airline travel. I mean, what part of it isn’t annoying, really? I’d honestly rather not sit in that tight of an arrangement anywhere, frankly.
Anyways, when the person in front reclines, I usually take that as my cue to recline. If they recline, and I am being super polite and don’t recline, then that would leave me with very little space. I always figured that when I reclined the person behind me could too - if they choose not to, that’s there choice.
Anyways, I hope I don’t come across as a rude person, it has just never occurred to me that people thought this was actually rude. I knew they didn’t love it - but I thought everyone, like me, just saw it as a necessary annoyance of being packed in there like little sardines.
I will usually try to recline a little bit so as to make the ride a smidge more comfortable, but to be wary of the poor guy behind me. I am also tall, and I hate when people fully recline- so I try not to be that guy. But, on the other hand- it’s hard for me to actually get fully angry at the guy. He’s only recognizing his right to recline as offered to him by the airline. So, I guess I get more frustrated at airlines and see it as one of the inconveniences of air travel.
On a long transatlantic flight, the woman in front of me reclined her seat all the way. I finally said to her: “Last time anyone’s head was that close to my crotch, I at least got a blowjob out of it.” She stayed there for the entire flight.
My husband is 6’4", so with current airline seating being what it is, a fully reclined seat in front of him won’t just “invade his space”, it can often hurt his knees. He does at first sort of push; he braces his knees so the reclining person can feel there’s something back there and take that as a cue to recline no further. If they continue, he politely asks if they can bring the seat up a couple inches as his knees are being put in some pain. Typically if the person looks back, they see he’s that tall and really not kidding, and do bring it up a bit.
The last time this happened, a woman on the short end of 5’ cranked her seat all the way back and was actively pushing against his now non-braced knees to get every last degree of reclining out of it. When he politely explained his predicament, her response was that she had a sore back and he should switch seats with someone else then. (On a fully-booked plane.) I offered to switch seats with him, but he rightly pointed out that my legs are nearly as long as his and so that wouldn’t improve matters. Once we got to cruising altitude, she spent much of the flight leaned up, looking out a side window directly across the aisle, or often getting up to look out. During one of these trips, he took the opportunity to push her seat up a bit, and she never seemed to notice when she returned to the seat.
Just because the airlines built their planes that way doesn’t mean it’s polite to use it to its full effect without considering what it may do to the person behind you. Sort of like just because you can raise the armrest, it doesn’t mean the passenger next to you is cool with you cuddling up with them!
